Ballaghbeama Gap

Ballaghbeama cuts through the mountainous interior of the Iveragh peninsula, the empty ground that the Ring of Kerry drives around rather than through. The road narrows to a single lane and passes through a gap where the rock walls close in on both sides, bare and steep, with almost no vegetation and a stream in the bottom. There is no visitor centre, no car park, no sign, no cafe and no coach - the road is too narrow and too twisted for them. That absence is the appeal. It links Glencar with the valley above Sneem and is used mainly by farmers and by people who have deliberately gone looking for it. The surface is poor in places, there are few passing bays, sheep sit on the road, and it is genuinely remote: no phone coverage, no houses for stretches, and no help if something goes wrong.

The landscape

• The cleft - rock walls closing in on both sides of a single-lane road.
• The interior - the empty mountainous middle of the peninsula.
• The absence - no facilities, signs, coaches or other traffic.
• The link - the road between Glencar and the Sneem valley.

When to go

May to September. The road is unpleasant in wet or foggy weather and can be blocked by fallen rock. Sheep are on the road at any hour.

Things to know

Single-track with a poor surface and very few passing places. No phone coverage, houses or services. Not suitable for large vehicles. Nothing here is provided for visitors - that is the point, but it means no shelter if the weather turns.

Nearby

Sneem and the Ring of Kerry are south; Glencar and the Reeks are north.